Germany eyes facial recognition tech for airports, train stations

Digi rights activists warn against "total surveillance" that could fail to halt attacks.

Germany's interior minister revealed plans for facial recognition systems in the country’s airports and train stations over the weekend—but digital rights activists have told Ars that the plan goes too far and would prove ineffective.

Thomas de Maiziere told Bild am Sonntag that he wanted a system that would allow biometric information gathered from surveillance cameras to be matched against intelligence databases of known terror suspects.

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“There are opportunities for individuals to photograph someone and use facial recognition software on the Internet to find out if they have seen a celebrity or a politician. I want to use such face recognition software on video cameras at airports and train stations to show if a suspect is detected,” he said. “The authorities must use technology they are legally allowed to use.”

De Maiziere added that a similar system was already being tested for unattended luggage. In the UK there are around six million CCTV cameras, but most—we're told—are used only for passive recording. Stateside, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has access to as many as 411.9 million images as part of its face-recognition database.

If video surveillance is basically extended, then so are the surveillance systems that are built around that. For example, to be in a position where one can recognise a face, you also need to store all the images to compare it with. So in effect we create a gigantic new database of personal information.

Of course our data protection authorities may have a lot to say about this, and they actually always weigh the balance of more security against our fundamental rights of freedom and liberty. But I worry that we are creeping close to total surveillance. Fighting terrorism and crime must be proportionate. We cannot throw our rights or our constitutional principles overboard even as we need to maintain our rule of law.

Others questioned whether such a scheme would even work. A large trial for facial recognition at Mainz train station funded by Germany's interior ministry proved worthless as too many false positives made the technology unreliable—though it's worth noting that the test was carried out over nine years ago.

The €210,000 Projekt Foto-Fahndung was tested between October 2006 and 31 January 2007 with 200 volunteers. According to reports, the study found that successful face detection using 2D methods is only possible with frontal shots.

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Sander, likewise, queried whether facial recognition tech would work in preventing a terrorist attack, as someone prepared to kill themselves is unlikely to care about a video monitoring system, even if it is useful to aid police in identifying suspects after an attack.

On Sunday, de Maiziere said that the German public would have to get used to “increased security measures, longer queues, stricter checks, or personal entry cards” at public events. He added: “This is tedious, uncomfortable and costs time but I don’t think it’s a limitation of personal freedom."

Munich’s Oktoberfest (a rowdy, beer-supping affair) will already see increased ID and security checks, as well as a ban on backpacks.